Beer shipments up 2.8% in August

Total shipments of beer and beerlike drinks grew 2.8 percent in August from a year earlier to 42.12 million cases, according to reports by the five major brewers.

The first year-to-year rise for August in five years was attributed to fine summer weather nationwide as well as brisk sales of limited-time products for the fall, the brewers’ data showed.

Sales remained modest in the first half of the month as many people refrained from dining out during the London Olympics, which ran through Aug. 12, but things began growing, especially on demand from corporate customers, officials in the industry said.